64 



AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



Surface-stirring. This is a most important branch 

 of the cultivator's art especially important in hot 



countries. In warm, 

 moist weather grasses 

 and weeds spring into 

 shape, and flourish 

 with a degree of 

 vigour that surprises 

 European farmers, and 

 they are no novices in 

 Cultivator. the warfare with 



weeds. This growth has to be checked promptly for two 

 reasons: First, weeds cannot exist without injuring the 

 crop ; second unless they are destroyed at once they 

 become too powerful for ordinary treatment, and often 

 cost more than the crop is worth. It is exhausting work 

 for hand labor, this necessary destruction of weeds. We 

 are free to confess to a feeling of pain whenever we see a 

 man trying to cultivate with a hoe or a hand-tool where a 

 horse implement would answer as well ; it is neither 

 healthful nor profitable in this climate. The man who 

 attempts to farm by such means works with heavy odds 

 against his health and his success. It is very up-hill work 

 to attempt anything in the way of cultivation more 

 extensive than home gardening without the aid of horse labor. 

 Cultivators are made for one or two horses, and are 

 in high favour for stirring the surface soil between cane, 

 corn and other crops in rows, and for garden and orchard 

 cultivation. 



Harrows and Harrowing. Of late years, and in warm 

 climates especially, much attention has been bestowed 



upon the harrow as an 

 effective and a labor-saving 

 implement. The work of 

 the harrow is almost iden- 

 tical with that expected 

 from the gardener's rake : 

 it breaks or smooths down 

 the rough places, prepares 

 soil for seed, and rakes in 



Make-shift Harrow. 



